Manafort balks at jail move

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, currently jailed while awaiting trial, be moved to a detention center in Alexandria, Virginia.

The order from U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis followed weeks of complaints from Manafort's defense team that his jailing last month at a facility two hours' drive south of the Washington area was interfering with his ability to consult with his attorneys in advance of one trial scheduled to start in Alexandria later this month and another in Washington, set for September. They even cited the logistical problems as a key reason to put off the first trial, now about two weeks away.

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But, in an unexpected turnabout, Manafort's attorneys notified Ellis on Tuesday afternoon that — despite their repeated laments about his predicament — their client prefers to stay put.

"The concerns underlying the request for a continuance, while specifically noting the substantial distance between Northern Neck Regional Jail and Alexandria, were, at bottom, aimed more at the difficulty of preparing for trial given Mr. Manafort’s detention versus his prior status on pretrial release," Manafort's lawyers wrote.

"In light of Mr. Manafort’s continuing detention and after further reflection, issues of distance and inconvenience must yield to concerns about his safety and, more importantly, the challenges he will face in adjusting to a new place of confinement and the changing circumstances of detention two weeks before trial. With these considerations in mind, Mr. Manafort respectfully asks the Court to permit him to remain in his current place of detention," the defense team added.

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Ellis did not immediately rescind his order, so it was unclear whether Manafort would be transferred or not.

Manafort has been held since June 15 at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia, after the judge overseeing his Washington case revoked his release under house arrest, citing witness tampering charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller's office.

Ellis is handling the Virginia case against Manafort, where he faces charges of bank fraud, tax evasions and failure to report foreign bank accounts.

In addition to the tax and bank fraud charges, Manafort faces a criminal indictment in Washington of money laundering, failing to register as a foreign agent and witness tampering.

Late last month, Manafort appealed the judge’s order to jail him, arguing that evidence that he sought to tamper with witnesses is “thin — to be generous” and that his jailing in solitary confinement “gravely impairs Mr. Manafort’s ability to prepare his defense.”

That appeal was met with pushback from Mueller's office, which has brought both cases against Manafort, arguing that the alleged witness tampering was no less dangerous because it apparently was not done with threats of violence.

More recently, Manafort has also requested a change in venue for his Alexandria-based trial to Roanoke, Virginia, where his defense team argued he is more likely to receive a fair trial in light of the substantive media coverage of his legal woes in regard to the Washington case.